Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 2061: The Best Program for Building Muscle, Using Sumo Deadlifts to Build the Hamstrings, the Truth About the Health Benefits of Veganism & More (Listener Live Coaching)

Episode Date: April 26, 2023

In this episode of Quah (Q & A), Sal, Adam & Justin coach four Pump Heads via Zoom. Mind Pump Fit Tip: One of the MOST effective things you can modify that will almost INSTANTLY get you to build strength, build muscle, burn body fat, reduce cravings, improve your mood, and balance out your hormones is to optimize your sleep! (2:32) Justin’s coffee fiasco. (16:45) STOP trying to control your feelings and instead WORK on your relationship with them. (21:11) The pros and cons of our current education system. (38:27) Exercise as a valuable form of therapy. (43:09) Vuori makes your sexier. (52:43) Shout out to Mike Matthews. (53:47) #ListenerLive question #1 – What program do you recommend after completing Anabolic Advanced? Keeping in mind I don’t want to give up compound lifts and/or lose my strength gains. (56:58) #ListenerLive question #2 – How can I keep up with the high step goal after I stop reverse dieting to keep my new maintenance calories? I don’t have much time in the evenings for more walking, so it isn’t realistic for me to continue adding more steps. (1:05:59) #ListenerLive question #3 – Any tips to help me connect to my hamstrings while doing dumbbell sumo deadlifts? (1:16:58) #ListenerLive question #4 – Do I become vegetarian again and focus on supplementing with egg protein, supplement my deficiencies, and other things, or is it not as big of a deal as my professor is making it seem? I was vegetarian for about two years, but I had to stop because I was losing hair, I was irritable, and my fingers and toes were tingling all the time or going numb. (1:30:42) Related Links/Products Mentioned Ask a question to Mind Pump, live! Email: [e-mail] Visit SleepMe for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! Visit Vuori Clothing for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! April Promotion: MAPS Anabolic or MAPS Split 50% off! **Code APRIL50 at checkout** Mind Pump # 1345: 6 Ways To Optimize Sleep For Faster Muscle Gain And Fat Loss Mind Pump # 1770: How Sleep Helps Your Muscles Recover And Grow Good Inside | Parenting With Dr. Becky Exercise more effective than medicines to manage mental health, study shows Visit NED for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! MAPS Strong MAPS Symmetry  Reverse Dieting 101 Improve Your Deadlift with a Single Leg Romanian Deadlift Focus Session Build Your Hamstrings with the Stability Ball Leg Curl For a limited time only, Mind Pump listeners get a free LMNT Sample Pack with any purchase: Visit DrinkLMNT.com/MindPump The Game Changers Review - A Scientific Analysis (Updated) Mind Pump # 1123: The Game Changers Movie Review, Best Strategy To Lose Bodyfat AND Build Muscle Mass, The Value Of Heart Rate Variability & MORE Mind Pump Podcast – YouTube Mind Pump Free Resources People Mentioned Dr. Becky Kennedy | Parenting (@drbeckyatgoodinside) Instagram Mike Matthews (@muscleforlifefitness) Instagram Layne Norton, Ph.D. (@biolayne) Instagram  

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mind, pop, mind, pop with your hosts. Salda Stefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. You just found the most downloaded fitness health and entertainment podcast in history. That's right, this is Mind Pump. Right, today's episode, we answered live caller's questions, but this was after we did the intro portion where we talk about curtain events, family life, scientific studies, fitness, and much more.

That intro part was 52 minutes long after that. Callers called in and we got to help them out. By the way, you can check the show notes for time stamps if you just want to skip forward to your favorite part. Also, if you want to be on an episode like this, where you call in, we help you out on air, email your question to live at mindpumpmedia.com. Now, this episode is brought to you by some sponsors. The first one is sleep me.

This is a device that lays on your bed and it uses water to cool or warm your bed to the perfect temperature to optimize your sleep quality. This will help improve hormone profile, help you with fat loss, muscle building, mood, energy. I mean, you name it. Sleep is very important. Go check this company out.

Go to sleep.me forward slash pump 30. And that'll give you 25% off any of their sleep systems. This episode is also brought to you by Viori, makers of the best looking at leisure wear. You'll find anywhere. In fact, my wife says I look super sexy when I wear it, and I think she's telling the truth. Anyway, go check this company out,

get a massive discount, go to vjoryclothing.com that's v-u-o-r-i clothing.com, forward slash, mind pump, and that'll give you 20% off any of your purchases there. We're also running a sale right now on two workout programs, both 50% off. Maps and a ball at half off and Maps split half off. If you're interested in either one, you want to get that discount, go to mapsfitinistproducts.com and then use the code

April 5-0 with no space for that discount. Alright, here comes a show. T-shirt time! And it's T-shirt time! Ah, shit, Doug, you know it's my favorite time of the week. We have three winners this week, two for Apple podcasts and one for Facebook. The Apple podcast winners are Amber Don Gomez and Raf Furtado. And for Facebook, we have Jen Jarrow on. All three of you are winners, so send the name I just read to iTunes at MindPumpMedia.com, include your shirt size and your shipping address, and we'll get that shirt right out to you. One of the most effective things you can modify that will almost instantly help you build

strength, build muscle, burn body fat, reduce cravings, improve your mood and balance out your hormones Is optimize your sleep literally if you optimize your sleep you can dramatically improve all of the things I mentioned and a lot more This this right here. I wish I knew I felt personally attack when I was younger. I know Like we sleep in your gym because I said that to you this morning or I said, I came up with this. No, holy cow, that's true.

How did you get this morning? I just came in and say, like, God damn it. Well, I got little ones too, man. So it's like, this is the thing. You know what the issue is with this is that, and this is true for a lot of different things, is that people don't, most of us, including me, I didn't understand this as well,

for a lot of things, don't understand the difference between essential and optimal. There's a wide gap between essential and optimal. Most people, we survive off of essential sleep. Like, we know when you're not getting essential sleep, because you're literally, you can't think straight, you're like, wow, something's really wrong with me. Usually when you have a newborn, that's when you start to go below essential sleep and you know, like, oh my God, this is like torture. Delirious.

Delirious. But beyond that, most people are like, I get enough sleep because we're getting essential sleep. Like you're not getting so little sleep that you notice these massive detriments in your personality, mood, day, and horrible health. If you do, you have insomnia, you probably are going to talk about it.

I feel like it's real similar to how people look at, like, or how they look at protein. Oh, totally. Right? Everybody thinks like, almost every client thinks like, oh yeah, I eat protein, because they eat meat or something like that. And it's like, in the near track, it's like, okay, well,

yeah, we're not in the range that you're gonna die. We're not eating enough protein. But boy, there's a much greater range that you could be towards the top of to get maximum results and everything that you're doing. I feel the same way about sleep. People sleep and they're like, oh, I'm fine. I get up and do my thing because they're running off of four or five hours or interrupted sleep for seven or eight hours.

And it's like, boy, there's still so much more potential. That's more common. It's more common that people get the seven to eight hour block because they know that they're supposed to get seven to eight hours, but it's bad quality, seven to eight hours. So really it's equivalent to like five and a half or six hours of sleep because it's quality and quantity.

But you're right Adam, this is true for like water. Water's another one, right? I had this conversation with my oldest where he's like, I right Adam, this is true for like water. Water's another one, right? I had this conversation with my oldest, where he's like, I'm like, you need to drink more water. He's like, I drink when I'm thirsty. My body tells me I'm not water. I said yeah, your body tells you

when you need essential water. But optimal water and take makes a big difference. Well, you know what they actually what they say about that is by the time you are thirsty, like the process of dehydration is already started. Correct, is that right? Yeah, somewhat, right? You're getting there, right? So once you're thirsty, it's process of dehydration is already started, correct? Is that right? Yeah, somewhat, right?

You're getting there, right? So once you're thirsty, it's like you're starting to get to the point where it's basically like get water right now. Yeah, yeah. If you wait till you're thirsty, that means you didn't get enough. Well, the idea is to be drinking consistently enough to where you never feel that kind of thirst. Right.

Now, when it comes to sleep and muscle gain, fat loss, health, performance and all that stuff, it's not that sleep is this magic, anabolic factor, but rather, when you lack sleep, it has profound negative effects. So when you correct it, it feels like the craziest, most amazing thing you've ever done in your entire life. Like literally, this is no exaggeration. When I figured this out as a trainer way later,

it's gonna be like, I don't know, it's gonna be like 15 years, literally 15 years of figure. I didn't look at sleep at all with my clients for 15 years. But when I started focusing on this, I would see I would have a client, we'd just, and we would pick one thing to focus on at a time, right? So let's say it was sleep and I'm like, okay, here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna optimize your sleep and I would have a client, and we would pick one thing to focus on at a time, right? So let's say it was sleep, and I'm like, okay, here's what we're gonna do.

We're gonna optimize your sleep, and I would look at things like temperature of the room, you know, light within the room, things that you do before going to bed, you know, yada yada, all the things we've talked about. And then when they would start to dial it in, it would literally be like an instant four pounds of muscle gain, like right away, like all of a sudden,

doing the same stuff, they'd gain four pounds of muscle or that stubborn five away, like all of a sudden, doing the same stuff, they gain four pounds of muscle, or that stubborn five pounds of body fat would go away. Or the anxiety that they had on and off, all of a sudden disappeared, right? And it's, again, it's not that the sleep is magic, it's rather that the not optimal amounts of sleep has profound effects. Well, you gotta think that, okay,

if you don't get optimal sleep, it's gonna affect somewhat of the recovery process, if you don't get optimal sleep, it's going to affect somewhat of the recovery process. If you don't get optimal sleep, then it's going to affect somewhat your energy level the next day. If you don't get optimal sleep, it's going to somewhat affect your probably your eating habits and your nutrition. Your hormones, your catacole means your neurotransmitter.

And all those things play a role in your body deciding whether it's going to build muscle from the stimulus that you probably are going to do inside the gym. And so, I mean, it's hard to like measure something like this, but I've done this for long enough, consistently enough, that it's very clear to me when sleep is aligned and I'm getting good quality sleep consistently, my body responds. When I'm training and I'm eating right,

I see the difference in changing when I'm not or it's inconsistent, I feel like the results are inconsistent. I feel like I'm still eating good, I'm still training, I'm still doing those things, but then the results aren't coming on the same way they are when I'm getting optimal sleep. 100% and this is how I've heard it explain by evolutionary scientists,

and it makes perfect sense, right? So obviously the way evolution works is bad traits tend to disappear or traits that tend to be detrimental to the survival of species get evolved the way or bred away, traits that are positive, tend to get amplified. And so over time, the species becomes more resilient to its environment and all that stuff. Sleep for all intents and purposes is terrible. You literally are unconscious. You don't know what's going around.

You're not awake to produce. You're not awake to get food. You're not awake to build. You're not awake to do anything. And you're unconscious and you're literally food laying there on the floor and animals can come eat you. So the way that they explained it was,

here's how important sleep is. It's so important that we didn't evolve it away. In fact, almost every animal we know goes through a period of sleep. That's how profoundly important this is. So someone watching this might be like, oh, I'm getting good gains. I eat right, I exercise consistently.

I have a good lifestyle. I seem to be pretty fit or whatever. You have no idea how big of an impact optimizing your sleep can have on all those things. It's almost like night and day difference. And I've seen this with young people, definitely with old people. It's just one of those things that makes a profound difference. And we invest so much time and money and energy

in our workouts and our diet and our supplements that we completely take for granted, the power, the impact that sleep can have on us. You know what I was thinking is, is we're kind of talking about this is, you know, how we look at nutrition and how, if you go through a fast, like what, how enlightened you get in terms of your behaviors. And what, what sort of things like revolve around your schedule of food and like, you know, when you tend to eat certain types of foods

and all that kind of stuff. And, you know, if we put that kind of attention towards sleep and we really kind of peered into that, I know there's some tracking devices at this point now where you can kind of see like REM sleep, you can see kind of that deeper sleep and get some little bit of insight there and really like pay that kind of like discipline to attention to it in order to optimize. I think the only time most people really feel that that real great deep sleep is like if they're on vacation and they don't even realize it.

They think it's the vacation that's doing all of the work. When it's probably sleep and sun is like the most optimal thing that they're feeling. Yeah, you're 100% right. And, you know, it's again, it's extremely impactful on the body. And something to consider is that our environment rapidly changed because we innovated. And what I mean by rapidly is if you look at big scale, how long modern humans have been on Earth, for the vast like 99.9% of the time that modern humans,

like my physical body, like I've done it for the last 75 years, it's like we've totally environment completely changed like you now have to schedule activity Because our lives are completely inactive never in human history had to like purposely lift heavy things We never get in an environment that moves anywhere from 65 to 80 right? We've like constantly keep ourselves in this like control temperature environment Totally we food we have to we have to actually discipline ourselves to not over eat. Like, could you imagine going back, if for most human history and telling people, oh, you know in the future, people actually die from too much food. They would look at you like

you're crazy. They would laugh. Like, what are you talking about? That's insane, right? I can string almost a week together and not see the sun. Yeah. You get up early enough and go to a job where you, you know, are under fluorescent lights and work there to a late, late hours. You may not see the sun for a week. That's crazy. That's right. Now, sleep, like, if you look at the most, for home, most of human history, first off,

we're terrible at night. In the dark, we're essentially blind and we're not very, I mean, imagine being in the woods in the dark, so you don't have an electric lights. Maybe you have, you know, you have like a torch, right, a flame or whatever, like you're like sitting prey, like you're literally a cheeseburger walking around in a dark room and everything around you wants to eat you. So we evolved to move around when the sun was out and to hide when the sun went down.

So what does that mean? It means that we sleep best when it's dark, we sleep best when the light starts to slowly dim, doesn't just shut off. The sun's never done that. It's like, oh, it's bright. Now it's completely dark. Doesn't work that way. It's like slowly becomes dark.

The temperature cools down. Optimal sleep temperature is a lot cooler than what we would consider to be optimal temperature to hang out. Most people like 72 degrees, 73 degrees in the house. Optimal sleep is in the 60s. That's because it would cool down at night, warm up as the sun went up. Those are a few things you can focus on. For example, we work with a company called Sleep Me. This is a device that sits on your bed. It uses water to optimize the temperature of the bed. Now there's individual variants here. So I gave you the general number, it's like in the 60s.

I think I mid to high 60s of temperature for optimal sleep, but you know, everybody's a little different, right? When you optimize temperature and you do nothing else, nothing else, you just optimize temperature. You see profound impacts on sleep quality. So even if you don't do the thing with light, even if you don't do the thing with diet and stress and caffeine, you do nothing else. All you do is make sure that your room or your bed is optimal temperature for you, then you'll see his profound impacts

in sleep quality. And then downstream, you'll see improvements in hormone profile cravings, muscle gain recovery, like all the stuff. And it's such an easy thing. And I like, muscle gain, recovery, like all the stuff that we're doing. And it's such an easy thing. And I like, and I know you guys are like this too, as coaches and trainers, there's all this list of things that we can do to improve someone's health and fitness. But the way we prioritize them is what's the easiest and the most important. Easiest or cheapest, right?

Yeah, like what's the easiest, but also has the most impact? Yeah, yeah. And if it's like, oh, you know, you can burn more body fat by, you know, swinging a cold lake up 4 a.m., like I'm never gonna tell a client to do that because no one's gonna do that. But if it's like, hey, put this on your bed, set the temperature

and you're gonna have profound impact. And you never have to touch it again. You don't gotta change anything else. It turns on by itself, it's also, it's been one of the best things that I ever invested in. And it's a, you know, it's a, it's quite the investment the first time you buy it, but then you never have to do anything to it. And I'm terrible with like, you brought up the supplements and stuff because I understand

I know how much that moves the needle. And so that's part, it plays into my behaviors around. It's like, oh, yeah, I should take this. I need to take this and it's like, eh, whatever. Or something like that, I can set it, leave it, and I've already had so many nights where I know like, man, if I didn't have that, it would have been a miserable night of sleep.

Well, it's funny, it reminds me a long time ago you brought up where you invest and where you're spending most of your time in it's your car, it's your bed. It's these places and they're bad especially because if you invest and you have a good mattress You have you know temperature controlled all these things like just think about what a better human you are when you wake up And like you're in a better mood you're more vibrant. You have all these things going for you

So it's like why not like invest in that direction. It just makes too much sense to me. Yeah, it's like a simple You know, it's funny how we value things, right? I mean, how many times have you guys talked to clients about like the price of a gym membership? And they're like, oh, back, back, by the way, back in the day, gyms were more expensive than they are now. So when I first managed gyms in the late 90s, if you wanted a membership at a global gym, right? It was like 40 to 50 bucks a month, which now is considered super expensive. Yeah, plus I get 300 something in roll. Yeah, that's back then, okay.

So now they're like 20 bucks a month or whatever, but I'm sure people still do this, right? So I would present someone a membership, and they'd be like 40 bucks a month. Oh my God, that's really, that's crazy expensive. And you would, but now as someone who understands the impact of fitness, and also understands how much they spend on eating out, entertainment, chips, silly stuff that adds up to hundreds of

dollars a month. Now people spend hundreds of dollars a month on their cell phone or whatever, and now you can get a gym membership for 20 bucks. If you use it, there's nothing in terms of cost versus value and sleep is one of those things. So you can invest in something that will improve the quality of your sleep. I can't think of a single thing aside from hiring a trainer or a coach.

I think that's the most valuable thing you can invest in. I can't think of anything else more valuable where you'll get more of a return on your money than just improving your sleep. There's nothing like it, you know, doesn't even come close. So anyway, speaking of moods and stuff like that, Justin, I wanna ask you what happened this morning.

So, it's so angry. It's so funny. I was like, I'm like, A&D this morning, dude. I got a little bit of chip on my shoulder, dude. I don't know, like I didn't, I woke up and it was just one of those things where you just have kind of like a few things

that are off and you try to ignore it. You're like, no, I'm just, you woke up and it was just one of those things where you just have kind of like a few things that are off and you try to ignore it. You're like, no, I'm just, you know, it's fine. I'll get through this and like, so I just didn't have like, laundry, I didn't have like, I had to like help the kids like find things and we couldn't find it and you know,

and it's kind of like a domino effect thing. And I'm like on the road, like just rushing to getting, because I felt like Nelson, I'm late. And I have my coffee in the car with me and I'm driving over the hill. And it's just, I think when you're in a certain energy, it's just that it tracks all this kind of shit that just like kind of finds you.

And like, so I had people cut me off. I had like all this kind of like energy just surrounding me and Mike and I was like texting somebody which I don't typically try to do but somebody's like texting me and I'm like, oh, you know, reading it and rising and reading it somebody slams their breaks in front of me and I'm like, ah, and my coffee, it's one of those

thermoses that just didn't fit in the console at all. So it's just like a wide base to it. And it, and so, I kind of could fit it in there, but it didn't like secure it in there. And in the cup had like the top lid too, I had it thankfully, but it was open because I was taking a sip and so like I, Sam breaks, boom, it comes back and just

Spills everywhere and the center console like all over the place and it was like I was already like midway and so couldn't really pull over And like tune it up. I'm like sitting there You know when you have to like just stare at a stain And it's just looking at you the whole rest of the time I'm like driving over the hill and just like And it was like, you know, it's the car, care about, you know, it was even the other one. It's like, you know, I'm like doing the dump runs with and shaking, you know, so yeah, I'm feeling a little, I'm not angsty right now.

I've worked with you guys long enough to know you're like to feel your mood. Oh god, Lasson will walk to any. And yeah, Justin's got this look on his face because he's not like hyper expressive. It's like he comes in, he's like, I'm mad. He just has this look on his face. And you know, like, oh, there's a little bit of a volcano

under that. Let's just chill here for a second. So he came in, I was like, what happened, bro? Yeah. What is it about coffee and protein drinks? Those are the two things. I could spill anything and it annoys a shadow of me,

but coffee and protein shakes. I think it's so mad. You just know it's gonna stay. You know, there's just like a little bit of like a smell and there's a little bit of a stick. You're like, this is gonna stay a little bit. Well, at least you're wearing like good, because here's, I have this weird habit

of I rarely ever spill coffee, but if I do, it's a white t-shirt deck. You know what I'm saying? It's never a camo and black day. I mean, that's cool. I at least got that, yeah, so it blends in. Yeah, so you get to, it's always like a white outfit or khaki pants or something like that,

and I spill coffee. It's the only time I spill coffee. I think what it is for me is that when I'm getting coffee, it's my caffeine fix. So I'm not, I'm looking forward to a more than like a regular drink. So not only in my mad that I spilled it, not only in my damn caffeine. Yeah, and I needed that. Yes. And then with protein, it's the same thing like, oh, here's my 40 grams of protein.

I need this or whatever. I remember one time I was at the car and I was in the back seat because we were going with my parents. And I must have been 16 years old or something like that. And this was back when, you know, I thought, if you had to have protein every other hour, I'd go, you gotta lose muscle, bruh. Yeah, I can just see you fronting.

So I'm a 16 year old kid and we're on our way to like a communion, so I'm wearing like a suit with a tie. And I got my shaker cup ready and a little baggy with my protein powder. And I'm watching the clock. Oh, it's time for my protein. So I poured in there and I shake it. You ever do this with a shaker cup ready and a little baggy with my protein powder and I'm watching the clock Oh, it's time for my protein so I poured in there and I shake it you ever do this with a shaker cup and the top Bro, I just yeah protein chocolate everywhere everywhere all over my That's a worser when you you have so many protein cups that the wrong lid is on oh, and then just yeah

wrong lid is on oh and then just yeah you're just gonna just score to the place that's all of your counter and floor it makes me want to kill somebody yeah I do something like that oh it's so annoying yes I did you know it's funny I was speaking of feelings and stuff I heard every once in a while I'll hear something that just clicks and it's not like I didn't know this but it clicked so it was like really profound when I heard it and it was I keep talking about this I but it clicked so, it was like really profound when I heard it. And it was, I keep talking about this, I have, there's no affiliation, okay?

So I have no affiliation to this, but it's such a great course. It's the good inside course. Dr. Becky teaches it, trying to get it on the show. I think she's brilliant. And, you know, I'm learning about kids, toddlers and little kids and all that stuff. And she said something on that.

I was so, just, it's so impactful. She said something along the lines of, you can't, like stop trying to control your feelings, you're gonna have them. You can't stop them, they're there. It's the relationship to those feelings that you can work on. So it's not the feeling, everybody has anxiety,

anger, stress, sadness, all of this experience that is the relationship to those feelings that you can work on and manage and change. I.E. how we react to those feelings. How we react, how it feels to, and if you think about our experience as humans, the physiological effects of feelings or pain or hot or cold or whatever, that's pretty consistent.

Maybe some variance, but we're so consistent that all of us could go to the doctor and the doctor could treat all of us. And for the most part, you know, figure out what's going on, right? So that's pretty consistent. The gap though between that and our relationship to those feelings is so vast. Like you take somebody who grows up living in the cold mountains and they grow up with hard labor. Their relationship to cold and struggle and pain is very different than somebody who grew

up in a very comfortable type environment. And I know, my family, they're all hard labor and, you know, the way my dad grew up, like he definitely has a different relationship to being uncomfortable in that way. Then I do just through practice. So I thought it was a pretty cool thing to think a lot about that. Like our relationship to those feelings and, you know, and all those things. I don't know. I mean, I think it's, that speaks a lot to parenting. It speaks a lot to the environment, I think, that Katrina and I have worked really hard to try and create our house. We recognize that our son's going to go through phases and times where he's going

to be moody or he's going to change the way he likes or not likes things or he's not going to want to do stuff exactly the way we consistently do some days. And the one thing that we've been really good about is we always remain consistent. No matter how inconsistent he is about those certain things is that we, and we don't, I think sometimes as parents, we tend to overreact on things. And when you really pull yourself out, that's why I like that, the girl that you're referring to Because I watched the video that you shared and it's like you know when you pull yourself away from the situation Like when you're in it, it's so hard to see this but you can actually separate for a minute and go like okay

Is it that big of a deal? Yeah, is it that big of it? Like is the end of the world if you know It's 15 more minutes till he gets into his bath or he doesn't completely finish his plate or he skips that food or it's like, or he doesn't wanna put on those pants. It's just like, when we really think about it, it's always, it tends to happen to parents when we're in a hurry to do something

or a multitasking and we're trying to fix something out. And stress that yourself. Yeah, or maybe you got something else going on here, and that happens. And how we react, I think a lot of this has to do with probably how both Katrina and I were raised. We both were raised in very volatile type of homes. And we know how much we were impacted as children from that that inconsistency. And so her and I it's so great to have a who, that is as important to me as it is her. And so in those moments, we just don't let it,

we don't ever let it get to us and us react in front of him. And I think that, because sometimes she gets mad at me, I talk about, and you guys have heard me say this, I should clear this up while I'm addressing this right now, about what my son and I just just seems he's a great kid He's easy and she's like hey, you know when you talk about that all time It's like you really don't give us credit for what we do She's like you make it sound like we just got lucky we got this easy-ass kid and we don't actually put yeah

Like we don't have to pair it like that. We did actually we don't put a cautious effort towards this and she's right like and and sometimes it feels Effortless because we've been so consistent with that for so long, and I see it pay us back on the way he reacts in his behavior. You know what's a good example? This is an easy, simple example. I think you guys will all relate to it. You know when your kid is little and they fall down

and you'll have the parent that's like, oh my God, and they rush over. And then the kid, I mean, nothing happened, they just fell. And then the kid all of a sudden, oh, and then they start crying and freaking out versus they fell, you stay calm, see what happened, walk over, and nine at a 10 times, they get up and there's not a big deal.

Like that's a good example. Well, yeah, and you from the very beginning trained that his response. Totally. I mean, to that exact point, we did that with the way he throws it when he threw up. Like, your kid's going to get sick. Like, every parent is going to have, yes, your child is going to uncontrollably vomit

all over you and stuff at one point of parenting. Terrible truth. And when that happens, like, if you just, if you take it on the chin and can actually remain calm, especially the first few times that happens, like when Max throws up, like he throws up and then he's like, oh, he's apologizing or he's like, he just wipes his chin, it doesn't cry. Like it's just, we reacted that way.

And I see now the benefits of that as that's happened so many more times later on. Yeah, so cool. So last night, something happened along these lines. And I think this is actually a dad, a mom, dad thing, because I was like this with my older kids when they were little as well. And that, so Aralius is, you know, it's two and a half.

And kids go through these stages where they'll just be scared. They'll start to be scared of the dark, or they'll wake up in the middle of night and they'll be a little afraid. You know, the whole like monster in the closet or what's that noise type of thing, super common. And if that happens and he wakes up and he's anxious, if I go in there, I can very easily make him feel calm, relax.

He goes to sleep, Jessica has more of a challenge doing this. Now, there's other things that are the reverse, but in this particular case, I'll go in there and you'll feel calm and whatever. And I was thinking about this, I'm like, I don't really say anything that's magical. There's no like special thing I do. And like, you know what it is, is that dad seems like secure, strong, like, well, now I'm not scared because dad's here. So instantly his fear goes down.

I heard this one woman talking about this, this lawyer who defended fathers in custody situations. Like if you look at like custody moms versus dads, the dad's usually lose. And there's questions that the last the fathers, when these cases get really nasty, that this particular lawyer says is not fair. And they'll use these questions

to make it look like the dad doesn't know what the hell's going on. So they'll be say something like, okay, you know. What's his favorite food or something? No, it says, okay, Mr. Smith, you're such a good dad. What's the name of the, of his pediatrician? Tisha, yeah. What's the phone number to the doctor?

You know, who's the third grade teacher that whatever? All things I would fail my wife. Yeah, and the dad's like, I don't know. I don't know. So this lawyer, she came out and she said, you're asking the dad the wrong questions, ask him what's your what's your child scared of in the middle of the night? What gets them the most excited like stuff like that? Things that dad's tend to be so the whole fear thing I think is a big one where kids just kind of feel, you know, like, oh, dads here, I feel a little safe. Yeah. So remember when we, I told you, when we first started it, we first had Max, that I believe that when they can't speak, they can do the other senses are heightened, like they can read energy and feel that at, like, such a higher level, I think you put that off, right? Totally.

You're this big, imposing, confident, strong man, and then I think your son has to feel and daughter, have to feel that. Even the way you carry, the way you carry your kid is different than the way your mom carries. Katrina has this much gentler approach the way and she coddles and holds him.

I can hold him and like pick heavy things up and push stuff out of the way why I can hold him and pick heavy things up and push stuff out of the way while I'm grabbing him, move through crowds and stuff like that. And I think he just feels that. I remember when we went through that phase where we would go to anywhere public and if it's loud and crazy, like my son is just not a fan of that.

And he instantly comes to me, does it come to mom? Where in other situations, he goes to her first always. Like if he's sick, you better believe he's going straight to mom. If he comes in the middle of the night and he's half awake and he wants to cuddle, go straight to mom. He's not coming to me. But if he's in an environment where he's scared

or he has a bad dream or without, I can walk in, calm him down in a few minutes and walk right out. Where if Katrina goes in there, she's got to lay in there with them and stay in there all night. Yeah, that's what'll happen. I feel like I can come in and she's always just like, I don't get it, like you don't do anything. You just sit in there, she's got to lay in there with them and stay in there all night. Yeah, that's what'll happen. I feel like I can come in and she's always just like, I don't get it, like you don't do anything. You just sit in there.

I don't even have to, I just touch them for a minute, calm them down and then I'm sitting at the edge of the bed, letting him relax and then I can even lean over after about five minutes of being in there. Kiss him, say okay, dad has to go to bed and he, okay, he's chill. And he's chill, it's just like, I literally went in there and I rubbed,

I said, are you scared buddy and he goes, okay, he says okay instead of yes, he's like, okay. in there and I rubbed, I said, are you scared, buddy? And he goes, okay, he says okay instead of you. He's like, okay. And I'm like, yeah, I said, listen, I'm here and nothing's gonna bother you. And I'm like rubbing his back and I'm like, hey, you know what we're gonna do tomorrow? Start talking about tomorrow.

What's gonna happen? His cousins are coming over. He starts giggling. All right, buddy, you need to go to sleep. I wanna see mama's in bed, but don't worry, I'll hear you on the monitor. If you need me, you just let me know. Okay, rubb's back goes to sleep. If she goes in bed, but don't worry. I'll hear you on the monitor. If you need me, you just let me know. Okay, Reba's back goes asleep.

If she goes in there, she'll have to literally sleep on the floor some time. Yeah, well that's what happens with training. Yeah. If there's a night where Katrina doesn't come in our bed, that's because she went in to do that. We couldn't come back. And couldn't come back because he would.

Now on the flip side, my older kids who aren't even Jessica's biological children, so there's her stepkids. When it's something that they want to talk about, that's kind of challenging, that they feel like they may get judged on or they want to be understood, they will tell her before they tell me or their mom. And it's because she's really good at,

she doesn't react to stuff like that. I went to this party and then these kids were doing drugs or whatever and they could feel my reaction when I said, and Jessica's like, they could tell her anything and she's super chill about it. So they'll go to her for it, so think I'd have her because otherwise my kid's probably, you know, I just don't always like asking you

because you have two boys and they're both, like I feel like one's corny, one's you. And do you have that same experience with both of them or is it different for each of them? Like in that situation, like we're calming them down if they're scared, it's like, does one son kind of tend to go to Courtney because of those things and then one tends to go to you

or do you consistently see that behavior with them? Yeah, I think commonly, to what you guys are talking about, I'll pretty much have, it's a lot easier for me to go and come down and be that kind of presence for them, go in and calm down and, you know, be that kind of presence for them, especially if there's anything they're scared about, like I'll go in, and it's, it is the same thing. I'll just kind of hang out for a bit, and then they'll feel like it rests,

and then, but when Courtney's in there, she does have to stay in there quite a long time. I think, in terms of what they want to share with me, it's a little different. So like Courtney has a little bit of different relationship with Ethan and Everett. Like we both kind of have a little bit of a different relationship, which is interesting. It's not like any better or worse.

It's just like, I feel like there's just a different bond between these two. Yeah, they relate different. I feel like Ever's just a different bond between the two. Yeah, they relate different. I feel like Everett told me is a mini U, I feel like Courtney and Ethan are very similar. And so I imagine when they have something like bothering them inside, they're gonna go to the parent that they probably identify

emotionally with. I mean, would you say that? Yeah, I would, yeah. Like, so I told you guys the long time, I was like, I was trying to have like the sex talk and I was trying to kind of like, you know, with drugs and all that kind of stuff with Ethan and so it's interesting because

he'll listen and he'll contribute, it doesn't contribute very much. And he, he tells Courtney like everything. And it's like, it's just, I don't know. It bothered me. It kind of bothers me a little bit. Does it still, or are you still, like, you like, I I don't know. It bothered me. It kind of bothers me a little bit. Does it still or are you still like? No, I mean, I'm totally fine with that.

Like I understand like it's they've kind of been like that forever. Like he's just been very open and honest with her about like just everything. And I'm like, oh, keep that. You know, like I so I don't want to get in in the way of that. Because it's an open channel that that totally it can relay. And then I can kind of come in too. And like, and he's not opposed to talk. He's just like, he gets uncomfortable talking about it

with me for sure. Which I'm like, you know, I kind of wrestle with that a little bit on like, try to be, you know, try different angles and different approaches with it, but it's, it's, it's really just like a bonding thing. I think from a person out knowing you guys really well and the person outside looking in, I just I think it's a Courtney,

or Ethan is Courtney emotionally, Everett is you emotionally, and those are like emotional things. And so just the way he feels his feelings is more like his mom. And so when it comes to those types of stuff, he probably, and I think you're gonna get that with Everett. Everett is so you, the way he reacts and responds to things.

So when those conversations come for him, I feel like he's gonna gravitate towards you. I just, it is, yeah, it's funny, cause Everett is very similar in his spot. He's stuck onto you, bro. If you shrunk, if you shrunk just and down, that would be, yeah. He's fun to you, bro. If you shrunk, if you shrunk just and down, that would be it.

He's a mini me, dude. It's almost like painful to watch sometimes, but it's, I love it at the same time because I know how to navigate with him too. And that's, that's, because you understand. Yeah, I understand what he's going through. I understand like these, like frustrations he has

and also like how sometimes he doesn't have the words for it. And it's like, and then I can kind of help him find it. And it's like, like, I can kind of get pure into his way of thinking a lot easier than than Ethan. So yeah, it is a bit. Do you recall the last, like, big reflection moment for yourself through him, meaning the last thing that you saw, like either him really struggling with or frustrated with, or even overexcited about something, and he went, oh my God, this is so, that's me, and then you felt like you took a leap

in personal growth because of seeing yourself and him. Can you recall the last, I know that's happened to you. Yeah, no, that's happened a bunch of times. I mean, I'll have to kind of rack my brain about specific ones, but I know one in particular when we're talking about school. And I'm, this has always been a challenge for me because like that whole structure is never really jived with me, like even going through, and I was like, adamant about doing well, and it would piss me off that like,

it just was so hard for me. And like I was so, had such a chip on my shoulder, and like, I didn't even wanna go to college, but I just did it because I was just like, fucking spider-ing a pair of things. Yeah, like I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna get it. And he is like, so Ethan, it's really easy. Like he can like memorize and he can kind of like

play the game in terms of like studying just enough and then he just crushes, you know, in terms of like test taking and all that kind of stuff like Everett, he does really well, but like he has to put the work in, like he, and he gets pissed when like he isn't good at sort of math in particular is one thing that like we were kind of like working through that and like just that it wasn't, it wasn't clicking and he just like gets the paper and shreds it. I'm laughing. You know, like Courtney is getting frustrated. Like you can't. I'm like, just let

you just let him have his moment. Because that's you. Yeah. I was like, he's just like, he's frustrated. He's not getting it. You know, I think he just needs some time to like, you know, have all this kind of settle down and come back to earth and then it's like it'll click eventually. But like don't hammer him in a state like this, and I'm like, we'll tell a teacher, we'll email, you're just a dog, he's a homework. He's shredding his homework. Can I get a new one? You know, like that kind of a thing, you know? And I'm just like, oh no, like I could

totally see myself doing that. And I have done stuff like that, or just like fuck that, you know? Just, but it all comes back and once I'm chill, it's you know, work through. I man, I hope I see this on the horizon, but speaking about school, I hope that it continues to evolve and change because it is not great for a lot of people. I know a lot of extremely intelligent, successful adults, where they went through school and just the way school is organized. I know, we know so much about it.

It's hilarious to me that we still are in this. There's enough, like we figured out that it's not ideal, but we do stuff, so it's crazy. What's cool is that I think more and more parents are becoming aware of that, and so I think people are doing things outside, like even if they're going through like a traditional school structure,

they're finding ways to like educate and for their kids and give them different opportunities. I mean, even the way you're communicating with the menico on like college, like that's like probably a conversation that maybe even yourself wouldn't have had 20 years ago if you know, just the way schooling has gone where I know that's like 15, 20 years ago,

I would have thought like, oh, my kid's gonna go to college, he's gonna do this, and it's like, wow, no, I have a different, a total different perspective on how I would communicate that to him when he gets to that age. It makes me sad because, I mean, my wife and I are the same in the sense that we both love learning. Like, what we do for fun is we try to learn things about random.

Like, I love learning. I love reading. I love, and yet I hated school. I hated the environment. I hated school. She was so unstimulated in school, hated it so much. My wife literally thought she was dumb. She's like, oh, I'm not smart. I'm not good at this stuff. It's crazy. My wife's extremely intelligent. Like, in very, she absorbs stuff very, very quickly, but that's how bad school was for someone whose intelligent loves to learn,

just doesn't fit in that environment. How sad is that? How many people slip through the cracks? Because of the, you know, that's like, hey, let's take this kid and force him to learn like this. Like, I don't learn like that. All you learn is that you're not doing well. That's what I'm saying.

Oh, it's a fresh. It'll crush you. I had a client whose son struggled with school. Very smart. And I know he's an adult, right? Because I trained these people a long time ago. They were smart enough, and this is Kudos to them. They were smart enough to take their kid out of school.

And he was in a good school. They lived in a good area. So, no, quote unquote, good school. They pulled them and they homeschooled them. And why? Because it was crushing his self-esteem. He started hating himself. I'm not good enough.

I'm not, he didn't meet this kid. He was just like bright intelligent kid. He just didn't, again, the structure of it was fit in the box. He didn't fit. They pulled them, they homeschooled them. And he's this young entrepreneur. You put him in any environment. He's comfortable with hell with himself. You know, he doesn't, he's this young entrepreneur. You put him in any environment, he's comfortable as hell with himself.

You know, he doesn't, he's not. He's just this really confident, like they totally made the right decision. I couldn't imagine if they forced his ass to fit into that box, what that would have done to the poor kid as he had grown up, you know, makes me really sad. Yeah, I think, I mean, my personal experience or thoughts

around like, you know, the way we do education right now, the greatest value that you get is the ability to discipline yourself, to do something maybe you don't like and still persevere through it. I really feel like that's not to say that of course all the knowledge that you acquire during those years, but it's very rare that I meet somebody who's our age that says, oh man, what I might eight year or four year degree, I use all the time, the biggest value most of them had got for that was, man, that was hard. It was hard at a time where you're distracted and going out and partying and doing things

like that is something that you wanna do in your late teens and early 20s and you had to make sacrifice. You had to delay gratification, you had to discipline yourself, you had to build good behaviors like, man, that to me is where that's the gold in the education process today is just simply that, which can be taught in other ways.

I think the value of the degree itself and what you supposedly learn in school is the least valuable thing about school. Yeah, I mean, I agree across the board. I think that the problem is when the kid, you know, rather than having a teacher or system that's like, hey, let's, you learn, you like to learn like this, let's move in this direction or rather than doing that, the kid learns that they're bad, they're stupid, that they're ostracized, or that, even worse

is what's happening now. They lower the standards so that every kid passes. So rather than helping the kid figure this out, it's like, oh, you can't do this here, we'll make it so easy that now you could pass. Like, they're gonna teach this kid nothing if you do shit like that. Now, along these lines, speaking along these lines

of personal growth and stuff, study comes out. I gotta check, I gotta read to you guys the title of the study. I'd love your speculation on it because it's causing a lot of controversy. Now, for, yes. Now, for me and you guys, you're probably not gonna think it's that controversial

but to a lot of people this is a very very controversial here's the title this was in science daily and this was out of the University of South Australia Researchers are calling for exercise to be a mainstay Mainstay approach for managing depression as a new study, ready for this? A new study shows that physical activity is one and a half, okay, 150% more effective. So one and a half times more effective

than counseling or the leading medications. Not as effective, 50% more effective. Wow. And it's exercise. Yeah. It's not counseling, it's not drugs, it's literally activity and exercise. How freaking am I, like remarkable? Well, I guess for us, we've seen the benefit of that.

I feel like we've known this, but it hasn't been highlighted like that before or studied like that. So it's like to have that knowledge, you know, to not incorporate that with your therapy and with that entire process would seem like, you know, you're not really doing that person justice. Are you seeing it get pushback? Is it? Is there controversy? People are like, oh, the study is this, the study is that? Counseling is effective, medications are effective. I think they're missing the point. Yeah, they're missing it. It's not saying that those things aren't effective, just that these things are this is that much more powerful.

Powerful that is, yeah, it's a powerful tool. Yeah, and really, I think if you look at exercise as a form of therapy, which now the evidence, so now we can say this, by the way, couldn't say this before, even though we knew it, because of the way that our regulatory system works, this trainer's, God forbid you said anything, like exercise therapy, right? You get fired. Couldn't say this before even though we knew it because of the way that our regulatory system works as trainers God forbid you said anything like exercise therapy, right? You get fired even though we knew it was we know personally it is it is for me for sure

Here's why exercise is so powerful of a therapy. There's acute effects It you know it produces feel good hormones. It gets rid of stress physically, puts you in your body, which a lot of people are disconnected, makes you healthier. Your brain, your mind comes from your brain, your brain is part of your body, if you're healthier, you'll have a healthier brain, therefore, healthier mind, obvious.

But then here's the other part of it that I think a lot of people are missing. As you continue to pursue exercise and get better at whatever it is you're doing, Pilates, yoga, strength training, running, cycling, swimming, the pursuit of this particular skill is there's a lot of personal growth that happens along the way. 100%. 100%.

So I think it's great in the short term. I think it's even better in the long term. Well, take, take, take, take exercise out of the equation and focus on anything that's related to personal growth that you actually discipline yourself to do a minimum of three hours a week and think about it because you're making food choices also based off. Just trying to get better.

Yeah, all the time. Like, so think about it. So say it was you're just trying to be a better dad at whatever, or control your temper or be more empathetic. And you thought about it for, or you practiced it three hours a week. You also thought about it right before you diligently practiced it. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. There's not a lot of things. And so, and, and because you're, you know, initially chasing a look or a scale, you know, you wait on the scale, you unconsciously are doing that and you don't realize it. And you, and you, and you, yeah, that's why it's so powerful. Yeah, I think you say it so eloquently the way that you just kind of like fall into this,

like personal growth thing that you may not have really pursued. You were actually probably driven by an insecurity that got you to move in the right direction. But if you stick to it long enough, you start to connect the dots like, oh shit. And it's totally, no, and I think that's... Because you know, many people don't,

they don't want to do personal growth. They don't want to face those challenges, but they're like, I want to lose 30 pounds. Yeah. And then not realize that they're actually on a pursuit of personal growth. There's definitely something there, though, about getting out of your mind and more in your body.

Totally. Because just think about how many things we overanalyze, and then what that does in terms of raising your anxiety even more, because now I have to work on this, but it's like you know your deficits, you keep it on your mind, and it's like, let's just work this out. Bro, you just literally describe me. So I'm so mental, I'm so cognitively focused, I think about everything. I have a tendency towards anxiety. I

could live in my head all day long and I've recognized this about myself and I'm obsessive about exercise. Yes, I had body image issues as a kid, all that stuff. But the reason why now I'm obsessed about exercising is if I don't exercise on a regular basis, I'm literally, I will, I'm not a good person to be around. I'm not a, I don't think right. Yeah. I don't have the right attitude towards things. It is literally a form of therapy for me that I have recognized that is so profound that if I don't do it, I am 50% of the person that I normally am.

And the longer I don't do it, the worse it gets. So I recognize this for me, dude. Like it makes me a way better person in all aspects. I see a future, and I understand why this is controversial, because if you're a therapist, the counselor, psychologist, psychiatrist, and you went to school for a million years and you spent all this money and you got all this stuff, and other way,

hey, working out, it's a bit more effective than what you do. You're like, ugh, you know. But I think they're missing the point. I think the point is, and actually good therapists do this already, as part of a therapy, they implement activity. So I don't think this is an either or, by the way. No, I think it's, this is part of the, but we got to know how effective it is. It's got to be one of the top things. Well, and also to defend, bring it in, to defend a therapy in general, right, is that the average person is actually more likely to show up to their therapy

appointment than they are the gym. And so if you actually did a fact, if you did a hundred people who had the option to go to therapy or go to the gym, who and like knowing that the gym was 150% more effective at the end, and we talk about this all the time, right, when we take, we take a part studies, right? It's like, you also have to factor in what are people most like in that state where they're at, right? They're not in a good place and they're trying to fix something. They're more likely to go sit down in a chair and have talk therapy than they are to go to the gym

and put actual work. Now, I'm gonna compare apples to apples though. Give them a good trainer and they will show up. Like somebody who understands, I mean, I don't think that's apples apples though. Give them a good trainer and they will show up. Like somebody who understands. I mean, I don't think that's apples apples. I think apples apples is 100 people, they both have the choice to consciously show up to a therapy point or show up to the gym, which one are they more likely to do. I guarantee they're more likely to show up to a therapy appointment. If they know that they're treating depression. Yeah, because it's easier. Right, yeah, both people are treating depression.

Both people know these studies. I see what you're saying. Okay, all hundred people. Right. And we talk about this a lot. Like behavior has to be factored in these studies all the time. And what are people more likely to do?

I think they're more likely to go sit in a chair because when you're depressed and down, so that's what I want to do is work out. Yeah, the last thing you want to do is go push yourself and make good habits like that. I can at least go show up to my therapy appointment and bitch to my therapist for an hour. Like that to me, is it easier in?

And then the ideal world is that a good therapist is why we're sitting here and we're talking about, it's like hey, you know what, do you really well is maybe go to the gym and do X, Y, and Z. I think, right, get him going. Well, the irony of this conversation, it's funny because when I first was, I moved out to do personal training on my own

and do the independent training kind of structure of my business and all the stuff. And I was like, really get into the entrepreneurial side of the whole thing in my sister-in-law as a therapist. And we kind of talk and stuff about how she was moving into her own practice and kind of starting her own thing. And I just like knew that I had all these conversations with my clients all the time when we would actually go

for these walks, right? And I would actually take them out and then we'd do hikes together and all this stuff. And all of this would come out, right? And I would actually take them out and then we'd do hikes together and all this stuff and all of this would come out, right? Like all of these stories and, you know, past with, with, you know, what was happening with their family and also I'm like, kind of pitching to her.

I'm like, man, it'd be amazing if like you incorporated like walking into your practice and like, she kind of laughed about it but was like, yeah, that might be kind of, you know, a good idea. But like, just hear, like, now this is being like a valid option in a real helpful kind of way to look at it, I'm like, dude, that would make perfect sense. By the way, when I became a better trainer, and I would have clients that would hire me, and you could clearly see that they were depressed or anxious. Our workouts often consisted of a walk,

or we're gonna stretch a little bit, or we do one exercise. Now early of me was like, wait, the time, we gotta get you sweating and sore. Later on, I was like, oh no, this is having some pretty, you know, this is having some benefit, the fact that they showed up and we're just moving.

I actually had a client once that 50% of the time would show up, they were going through a really challenging time and they 50% of the time they'd show up and say, these would pay me 100 bucks an hour for this. They'd show up and say, can we just go for a walk? No training and we just would go for a walk, you know, just being just moving. Maybe he was different. Anyway, we're supposed to mention Viori, I gotta tell you guys compliment my wife gave me. She said, this is true, 100% that Viori makes me look a lot sexier. That's 100%.

Did she give you a scale? She just, when I wear like the work out clothes, type of stuff and I'll come downstairs, take a shower, come downstairs. She'll be like, man, you look really sexy. I'll be like, oh really? She goes, yeah, I like the way that Viori looks at. I'm like, type of stuff, and I'll come downstairs, take a shower, come downstairs. Should be like, man, you look really sexy. I'll be like, oh really? She goes, yeah, I like the way that Vuri looks at. I'm like, you might as well say, it hugs you.

So I wish I could, I wish I could, I wish I remember what family member I was talking to. It was when I was at the wedding, I can't remember who it was, but they complimented you as the, your appearance on the show has changed the most. Oh wow.

Oh, not physically, but I mean, when you start real low, it's not hard. Your style's gotten way better. Let's hear it out. You're ready to zero. They got for that viewer response or you're just saying. When you're at it zero, what will it come up?

Improving twice as much moves me up to a two or whatever. So it's not hard, bro. When you do one push up, you can double your push up by doing two. Yeah, that's how statistics works. Everybody, do one push up, you can double your push up by doing two. Yeah, that's how statistics works. Everybody, do we have a shout out for today? Anybody have anybody we wanna? You know, shout out, Mike Matthews, our good friend.

Yeah, yeah, I think with the muscle for life or muscle for fitness is his, I think with the rest of your life. Is that his, is that his handle? No, I think his handle's fitness for some reason. It's, yeah, it's muscle, oh, muscle for life fitness. This is handle, all one word. He's actually I don't know. I think we told you guys this. Doug and I when we were putting together maps and

a ballic and talking about, you know, we first started creating the podcast and like we're going to navigate the space. We actually looked at Mike Matthews as a good example of how to do fitness the right way. It was so filled with garbage. I remember I think Doug you found him. You like check out this guy's stuff. He's really good. He's smart. He says true things and he writes in a great way.

You know the thing that I think is most impressive about him. I think you guys would agree is, you know, we tend to connect more to the personal trainer who's or the fitness guru person, social media star, whatever. That has put 10, 15, 20 years into training clients over the like super educated PhD or a person who's just a study. Yeah, a study guy nerd. And Mike is actually kind of the study nerd guy. I mean, he openly admits like he was a he was a study guy nerd. And Mike is actually kind of the study nerd guy. I mean, he openly admits like,

he was a marketing guy before he got into the fitness pursuit and he really was like pursuing fitness for himself and then obviously like a lot of like us get passionate kind of nerdy about something that goes down the gravel. And considering he doesn't have thousands of hours of training clients like we all have, he really has a good understanding on.

He's a real student. How to take these studies and apply them to real life. Like I think that's so well. That's rare for someone like that. You never find that in somebody who hasn't trained lots of people, but he'll communicate what is important, what's actually going to be used, and what's relevant, which people who are like the science-based fitness people who never train people, do a terrible job

of. They always communicate stuff that we roll our eyes and go, that is a waste of time, you're splitting hairs, that doesn't make a difference. He knows how to decide for that, like a trainer, like somebody who's worked with a lot of people, so great follow. Hey, check this out. Do you want to improve your cognitive function, improve the feelings of motivation, innovation, decrease inflammation? Canabinoids can actually do all of that. There's a company we work with called Ned that makes a hemp oil product that's high in CBD, but also high and all of the other beneficial cannabinoids.

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Well, I just want to say thank you for your thought leadership and everything you're doing for the community, whether that's people in health and fitness or wellness or entertainment. It's amazing. And Dave Ramsey always jokes that his name is a cuss word in houses.

And I feel like Mind Pump might be is a Cussword in houses and I feel like mine pump might be coming. A Cussword in my house because I'm always like, Oh, I heard this today on mine pump or learn this. We need to try it. Perfect. That's awesome. But my question is around anabolic advanced and where to go. From here. I'm halfway through phase two and have noticed like two major things from it. My strength games, of course, have gone up. I've been lifting for about 10 or 12 years. And usually when I work on increasing my strength, my ligaments, tendons, and my joints kind of pay a toll on that, I was speaking to one guy that was running gear,

and he said that if you're on gear, your joints filled dry up. And I've never run gear, but my joints, if I chase that strength gain goal, my joints kind of feel dry. With this program, my ligaments and my tendons and joints have stayed really healthy. I feel very strong and confident in my body, and I don't feel like I've given that up for strength. I don't feel like I'm going to lean down and put a sock on and throw my back out. And the second thing I've gotten from Annabolic Advanced is the aesthetics part. I've been active my whole life and always stayed around 14 or 15% body fat just maintenance.

So I have never really cared about how I've looked. That's just what I maintain. I just like to pick everything up and put him back down and feel strong. But on this program, I feel like I'm starting to see definition in my arms and my stomach, my lower body, and I like that. So where to go from here, keeping in mind, I don't want to give up compound lifts. I don't care about bench press, but I don't want to let go of my deadlifting The strength gains I'd like to continue to get stronger in the gym and maybe some aesthetics and then I'm pursuing mounted shooting So to keep my back healthy for that. I have the perfect program for you. She says to you on here

I have prime anywhere suspension, but I'm looking for a heavier, hitter program, map strong. Oh yeah, I love that. I love that for everything you've described that you like, and I think you're gonna see incredible gains from that. Yeah, what's cool about this, Melissa, is you've been working out for a long time. Ten years is like, once you cross that consistent six or seven year mark, like you're you're you're really figuring things out.

You kind of know what works for your body. What doesn't work for your body. The negative is it's it's hard to progress. Like at a certain point that you can't keep getting stronger forever. And yet here you are seeing strength gains. Here you are feeling your joints feel good. Now I'm not I'm not just doing a commercial for MAP's endabolic advanced, although this kind of is one. good. Now, I'm not just doing a commercial for MAP Santa Balla advanced, although this kind of is one. I'm actually what I'm trying to convey here is you are following programming that is well done and it works for your body.

And this is exactly how you should feel. You mentioned that you had talked to somebody who said when they run gear, they feel a particular way. So for people, no, running gear is, that means on steroids. So somebody takes steroids will say, oh, my joints, your joints will feel dry and this will, that's not the same thing as what you may feel

when your joints start to ache, when you're training in a particular way. Anabolic steroids cause muscle tissue to grow faster, then connective tissue can catch up to. That's what they're noticing. In your case, you were just following programming that wasn't ideal and possibly you were overdoing it. The way you're feeling now is how you should feel when you follow any program. Now that doesn't mean any programs in the give you the same kind of strength gains and muscle gains.

Maps in a ball of advanced is like pure muscle, pure strength, like that's the goal. Other programs, the goals are a little different, but the way you're feeling right now, the words you're using, confident, I feel good, I feel like I can move, I feel like, you know, I'm looking better, I feel strong, like that's how you should feel following any program

that's appropriate for your body. And I am 100% on board with what Adam said. I think map strong, the other program I would say would be map symmetry, would be another program. I think you would benefit from because you've been working out for so long. It's highly likely you've never run a unilateral style workout program for longer than a week

or two most people haven't. So those two programs, I think you're gonna really enjoy, and you're gonna really enjoy the benefits. With maps strong and particular, you'll notice a lot of benefits in your posterior chain, your glutes, your hamstrings, and your back. And then the exercises that are in there, some of them are different.

And so for someone who's experienced like yourself, you just can have a lot of fun. You're gonna love it. Doing new exercises that really have this carry over to everyday life, especially the stuff that you wrote down that you're interested in. I noticed you wrote down, you know, like rock climbing and riding horses and stuff like that.

I think you'll really enjoy it. I love your mentality too, going into training and, you know, just focusing on getting stronger and I mean that's a rare thing. It's usually something we have to help kind of coach and guide people towards in terms of like their mentality going into it. It's very aesthetic driven for the most part and the majority of it at the beginning. So I actually had a little bit of a different, have you done like a full aesthetic like hypertrophy style kind of program before?

No, I used to do Olympic lifting training. And so that I started in powerlifting and then I was doing like two and a half times my body weight not wanting to compete and with a bad back injury. So I was like, why am I doing this? So then I went to Olympic lifting with a bad back injury. So I was like, why am I doing this? So then I went to Olympic lifting for a while and then came over to you guys and have been following the programs that I wrote down and now with anabolic advanced. Yeah, I was actually going to steer more towards aesthetic, which I was surprised, you know, and what's strong. But I mean, strong is a great one for

that for building up more, especially the posterior chain, like they's strong, but I mean, it's strong is a great one for that for building up more, especially the poster chain like they're mentioning, but. I mean, I love the, I don't, so okay, if we don't normally do this where we tell somebody, like this is, if I had you as a client, I already feel like I have enough information on you on how I'd like to run like our next nine months, and it would be strong, followed by symmetry,

followed by aesthetic. Yeah, there you go. That would be like, all the best of all of them. Yeah, that lineup would be just incredible for you. I think you're gonna, I think you'll like all of them. Symmetry will probably be the most challenging mentally because there's a phase in the beginning of it that's isometric and you slow down a bit

and then you have to go to unilateral. It'll be the most different. Yeah, that'll be the most different. But I think that order would be epic. But we'll send you strong if you don't have strong Melissa. Awesome. Thank you guys. I really appreciate it.

And like I said, everything that you're doing, thank you so much. Awesome. You got it. Thanks for calling in. So let that be a lesson for everybody, especially females listening right now. One thing she said was, her body fat, 15%, that's lean. I mean, that's visible definition. And she's like, but I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, I just really focus more on performance and strength. If you're stronger, if your performance is better,

if your mobility is better, and you feel good, the side effect of that is you look good. If you try to look good, oftentimes you screw all of that up. So let that be a lesson to people. Focus on those things. So it's easy to say hard to apply. That's right. But it's wonderful when you look in the mirror, you're like, oh my God, I didn't realize I was like, my body was changing visually.

This is really awesome. That's a great feeling versus constantly trying to visually change your body and you're just beating yourself up in the gym. Nothing's working. Next thing you know, you're going backwards and then it feels like a nightmare. That being said, I hope she takes the advice and runs all three because I would love to talk to someone that like her who's got this kind of experience.

Her body would be, yeah, in real. That kind of experience, the right mentality going into it, like that order after what she's doing right now would be phenomenal. What's really exciting is that, and Abolic advanced only been out for, what is it, two, three months now? It's only been a few months.

We're getting lots of reports now of people saying stuff like this. So I love that. I love them right a program, three, four months later. We get people emailing us in, telling us how awesome it is. So that's great. It feels good on that ego, huh?

Our next caller is Haley from Arizona. Haley, what's happening? How can we help you? Hi guys, it's such a privilege to be here. Thank you for your time. You got it. My question is about reverse dieting. I've been lifting for about seven years.

And since I found you guys, I've been doing max programs. When I was finishing max power lift and going into anabolic advanced, I knew that it was a great opportunity to reverse diet for the first time, honestly, since I started lifting. So I took some advice that Adam was a great opportunity to reverse diet for the first time, honestly, since I started lifting. So I took some advice that Adam gave a caller about adding steps along with calories each week and just kind of assessing the progress as you go. It's been working better than I ever could

have imagined, to be honest. I want to keep going. I've been loving adding steps and breaking up my day. I have a very sedentary job. So getting up and going has been amazing and eating more and getting out of the restrictive mindset. It's been life changing. But I'm going to run into a roadblock pretty soon where I am going to run out of hours in a day to keep adding more steps. So does that mean I have to quit reverse dieting altogether, which I don't want to do? Or should I kind of force my way through that and make some sacrifices with other time commitments just for the sake of the reverse diet? And then I can come back down from the steps later on.

Or is that just a bad idea? Haley. Have you seen the treadmill beds that they make? Yes. I'm just kidding. You know what? You know what? We probably never specified because that's true. Somebody heard that advice and then we'd be like, uh, I'm at 25,000 steps.

Like, what do I do? Well, there's, and there's not a wrong answer necessarily here. Let's, where are you at calorie wise right now? That's more important to know where you're at and, and how you feel. I'm at 2300 calories and 15,000 steps, which is doable. And I could add a few more thousand. It'll be fine. But I think when I get closer to 20,000, it's not going to be the most realistic thing long term.

So, so there's there's lots of different things that I'll do when I get to this point, right? So you can increase the intensity in the workout, because that extra demand and intensity is going to require a higher color can take. You could start to now do like moderate cardio. So stuff that's not like super intense, but now maybe I get on the treadmill or the elliptical for 20 or 30 minutes. And I'll do like maybe a little bit of intervals or start to push a little bit on there, not really intense because that's not my goal. My goal is to reverse diet right now and probably build muscle. So you could do that is an option. You can keep going the way you're going until you get to that place where normally I found for myself and clients is when they start

getting about 20,000 steps. When they get 20,000 and beyond, they seem to require additional forms of cardio in order to hit their step goal. But there's not, this isn't like you have to just keep going this way all the way forever. I think you're already heading in the right direction. Hopefully you can get yourself up to about 26, the 2800 calories by the time you get around 20,000 steps and should be in a really good position to decide if you

want to reverse and go the other direction or pick up intensity in the training or start to add a little bit of cardio in the day. So, so hey, my advice can be a little bit different because the point of a reverse diet is to teach your body to burn more calories on its own. What you're doing right now is you're trying to burn off the extra calories you're adding to your diet. So you're adding calories and you're burning it off with extra steps, which to a point that's great because it increases activity after a certain point, so longer a reverse diet

and you're just adding activity to burn the extra calories. We want your metabolism to speed up. So 20,000 steps a day is a lot for some people. 15,000 steps for some people is a lot to maintain on a realistic basis. So here's what I would tell you to do. I would tell you to bump your calories, stop increasing your steps, and watch yourself in the gym,

and you're probably just going to get stronger. There's an amount, there's a amount of calories your body will burn with the same lean body mass. It depending on whether or not your metabolism wants to decide to be more or less efficient. It doesn't require more activity. Well, that's a really good point that you're bringing up. Where did you come from? Where were your calories at when you started to reverse diet at and where we at? It was where at 23 now, so where were you before? I was at 1800 calories in about 10,000 steps.

Okay, you could probably jump bigger leaps. Like so if you were gonna go up and steps again, you're probably only moving about 100 calories at a time. I'd probably jump two to 50 calories, because to South's point, he's right, the idea of me teaching people this isn't like, oh, every time you add calories, you're trying to cancel those extra calories

by burning it off. It's really just to help mitigate the weight gain and the psychological thing that happens to a lot of people when you reverse diet them. If you reverse diet somebody, and they don't add any more steps whatsoever, sometimes that additional two, three, four, five pounds that goes on the scale, they start to freak out a little bit. So a lot of times what I like to do is while I increase calories, I also increase steps. So it's a slower, more gradual gain on

the scale. But if you're not seeing any gain on the scale whatsoever, or we're not building muscle because all we're doing is turning around and burning it off through steps. We're technically not really reverse-dieting the way we want to look to Salis Point and if that's the case, then I would, I'd bump the calories up even higher or bump them up small but don't add steps. Let me ask you this. How do you feel, you're doing what, how many steps right now? 15,000?

16,000. Yeah, 15,000. Okay. How does it feel to you? Does it feel like you got to really consciously try to hit those steps? Or is this like, oh, I love this. This is great. Honestly, I love it. And so far, it's fitting and seamlessly.

Okay. I would keep it at 15,000 and just keep increasing the calories over the weeks and focus on getting stronger. I don't think there's any need to increase your steps. You're at a wonderful step count for health. Plus the calorie burn you get from the extra steps that wears off your body adapts pretty quickly to that I mean there's plenty of really overweight male carriers and construction workers and people to move a lot your body adapts to that very quickly the idea is to

Get a metabolism that's faster on its own 15,000 steps if you're doing that and you feel good, I would just start bumping calories and not adding extra steps, keep them where they're at, and then focus on getting stronger. Are you following any of our, you're following Matt's power lift

or are you following something else right now? I just finished power lift, did a D-load week and I just started in a bulk advance. Oh, perfect. Yeah, start bumping your calories, keep your steps where they're at, and here's what's going to happen.

You're just going to build muscle and get stronger. Yep. Great. Yep. That's it. The only other question that goes along with that is, once I reach this point where I stop adding calories and I'm comfortable, how long should I stay there before I start cutting?

I don't want to do it too soon. I don't want to do it the right way. You don't necessarily have to cut. I mean, you can kind of hover out. If you're happy where you're at, you can hover around there. If you want to lean out a little bit, then you can start leaning out right away. But again, I do it very slow and gradual, just like you did on the reverse on the way up. I'd come on the way back down that way if you're trying to lean out. Otherwise, when you reach this area of, let's say, 27, 2900 calories a day, it's a very healthy place to be, you're active, you're training.

I mean, your body is probably gonna get... You probably just get leaner, right? Yeah, you will. You'll just continually probably get leaner, hovering around that caloric and take while you're still strength training and moving. Do you know what your body fat percentage is that right now, Haley?

I do not. Okay, do you have an idea? What's,, like, would you say you're like pretty lean or would you say you need to lose X amount of pounds? I don't know. I could probably lose 15 pounds at the end of the cut would be ideal. Okay. What do you mind if I ask your height and your body weight? Yes, sir. I'm five eight and about one5 pounds. Yeah, I, you know, you could, you're, I think what Adam said is ideal. If you do this, if you really want to do this like the right way and have fun with it, I would hit that maintenance, then keep it at maintenance and keep trying to get stronger and you'll, you'll get leaner on your own just slowly.

I mean, you could cut your calories and make it happen a little faster, but wouldn't it be great to lose whatever amount of weight goal you have and still eat like 2800 calories a day? Oh yeah, so drink. Yeah. Yeah, another great strategy is to get, you know, when you make a transition out of this program into the next one, so you go into something like performance

and you're now, let's say your calorie maintenance is around 2800 calories. Well, you hit 28 most days and maybe a couple that you have two or three days where you drop down to 25 and you go back up to 28. So you have intermittently have two or three low calorie days, lower, I shouldn't say low, just a few hundred calories less. While also running a new program, I think the combination of that, you'll see a nice gradual lean out going through that program.

Totally. Are those pictures on your Instagram? Are those updated? Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I should have known better than ask if you need to lose way. You got great. You're lean. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Here's a deal. You look really good. I would keep your calories at maintenance and you're gonna Naturally just start to get leaner. Oh shit, you're strong. Yeah, yeah, no, you don't need to pull in there three inner pounds Deadlift 325 is the PR I got Are you getting stronger on maps and a ball of advanced to

Well, it's just the beginning of week two. Okay, I imagine I will Yeah, I wouldn't I would not worry about it. Yeah, I wouldn't even, I wouldn't even, I'm not worried about it. Yeah, I wouldn't worry about cut either. You look good. You're doing so. Yeah, no, you tell, you're strong, you're solid like, yeah, keep it to that, keep it, you know,

get it up to where you're happy and then just keep it at maintenance and then you'll just slowly start to get leaner and keep a great fast metabolism. Yeah, definitely. Thanks guys. great fast metabolism. Definitely. Thanks guys. You got it. Sure.

I'm glad you, glad you pulled those photos. Yeah. Thanks, Doug. Yeah. I should have known better. I know. I know, right? She was, she's tall five, five, eight, one, eight, something

might, may sound on the heavier side, but she's not. She's like, yeah, small waist, like built legs, strong as hell. Oh, I would, I would a great example of how different weight looks. Oh, yeah. If it's like someone who's got muscle versus someone who doesn't. Yeah, you know what I'm saying? She don't need it. I know she said 15 pounds, but she don't.

No, she's fine. I mean, she would just naturally get leaner as she continued down this path, but she's got, she's, and look, looking at the amount of muscle and strength that she has, if she just starts to, if she continues to reverse diet, but not increase steps, she's just going to get strong. Like, she's already strong as hell. She's just going to keep getting stronger and stronger. So yeah, yeah, that's awesome.

Our next color is Megan from Massachusetts. Hi, Megan. How can we help you? Hi, how are you guys? Good. I just wanted to say thanks. First of all, just everyone always is for just being so real. And you keep me grounded and put things into perspective when I need it.

So thank you for that. Welcome. My first question, or I have a couple of questions over into the same thing. So I'll just give you a quick background. I've been seriously strengthening for about a year now. And I just started anabolic a few weeks ago. I'm doing the at-home mod and I'm using power blocks.

Not dumbbells, I have the adjustable power blocks. So those are a bit clunky, so I don't know if that's part of my issue. I've seen a lot of changes over the past year and then even more since starting anabolic. But one area that is seeming to be a weakness is in my hamstrings. And one exercise I'm having trouble with are the sumo deadlifts.

I don't feel like I'm connecting with them and I'm not sure if I'm just not feeling them in the right spot. I feel like I don't have enough range of motion. Like I go down the ground too fast. I don't know if that makes any sense. And I wasn't sure, like I'm pretty short, so I didn't know if the lesson of range of motion

has anything to my height or if I'm just not executing it properly, I don't know if you want to put a question or. Well, let's start with that. Yeah, that's a good start. I think that this is actually more common than you think. A lot of times it's the Sumo squat like that or Sumo deadlift sometimes will feel like a squat. And so people will actually feel Yeah, and their quads includes because there's there's less hip extension in the Sumo deadlift than there is in like a conventional. Are you holding one power block and are you holding it vertically?

one power block and are you holding it vertically? I have tried it like every way possible. I've done two power blocks like horizontally. I've tried one vertically which I don't like at all. I find that worse but maybe I don't know if I'm doing it right. Yeah. So I mean like look the shorter you are the shorter the range of motion tends to be because plates and weights tend to be the same size. Now that doesn't mean that the exercise is wrong for you. You can stand on plates or two things that'll lift your feet, so you have a little bit more of a range of motion.

I will say this though, if you do that, go way lighter because you've been training in a particular range of motion, and a new range of motion is gonna in a new range of motion makes it, is gonna make it far more unstable, so be very careful. The second thing is, the hamstrings are still being active.

It's not necessarily, you're not necessarily gonna feel them though on an exercise like this because they're not in a stretched position, and they're also not gonna be in a fully contracted position. Like if you wanna feel your hamstrings, you could do like a lying leg curl on a fizzial ball and you'll feel them,

does that make that a better hamstring exercise? No. So some exercises you'll feel and target muscles more than others. If you're doing the form and technique right and you're getting stronger, those muscles are still working. It's just like feeling the hamstrings in like squats and in like sumo dead lifts and stuff like that

for some people that are just knocking, especially if you're flexible, you're just not gonna... Sort of the conundrum with compound lifts in general. I mean, it's said to be able to feel specific muscles and what you're doing is a movement that's gonna provide the systemic type of stimulus. So your whole body's like receiving benefit from it.

So, and this is too, why the load needs to be substantial, it's tough to kind of like, you know, really get a good compound lift with using dumbbells. I mean, I'm just saying, you're compromising that to begin with, and that's just kind of like, what people need to realize is like, it is great to have the convenience of dumbbells. I mean, I'm just saying you're compromising that to begin with. And that's just kind of like what people need to realize is like, it is great to have the convenience of dumbbells and like we put the blueprints out there.

It's not ideal in terms of the benefits you're gonna receive from the compound lift aspect. Well, especially a movement like that. Yeah, like you think of the movement. It's just not gonna have the same type of like thunder you would get otherwise. Yeah, but you know, are the dumbbells heavy enough for you? I feel like they're pretty heavy that you can,

because you've been training for a year. So you might still be at the point where the dumbbells heavy is plenty heavy. Yeah, I feel like right now I'm kind of like, did it with, they go up to 50 pounds each. And so right now I'm doing about 50 or 60 pounds total. So, but I wasn't connecting, like I said, I wasn't sure, I kept changing the weight

because I wasn't sure what I was supposed to be feeling, like I wasn't feeling it in my hamstrings. I was more in my quads, like you had said. So I kind of just kept adjusting the weight. So with that in mind, I'll just, you know, take a better track. It could also be, there could be, I mean, this is where the value of like,

and I'll have Doug put you in our private forum. This is where, like, it's nice to be able to see what we're discussing right now, because sometimes when I teach a sumo deadlift, the tendency is to get in position, open up their stance, and then squat down to pick up the bar versus sliding the hips out and hinging down to get the bar.

And just you squatting down and you put you in this position where you're gonna drive up with your glutes and your quads more versus when I teach a client how to load on a sumo is I'm going to put I'm going to slide their hips all the way back so they can feel some tension in their hamstring before they grab the bar. So this could be a little bit of a just a just leverage. Yeah, it could be a little bit of adjustment on your technique of loading the bar. To Salis Point though, they're getting worked, right? So no matter what, if you bend the knee down

to pick a bar up and you stand all the way up, the hamstrings are included in that movement. But if we were trying to put more emphasis on there, how you get up to the bar and load it and create that tension before we pull up, could make the difference too. So it'll... Adam makes a really good point.

There's a difference between a sumo squat and a sumo deadlift. So the difference is this, when you're holding the dumbbells, a sumo squat, the dumbbells are going to be more in between your legs. If you're doing a sumo deadlift, imagine the handle of the dumbbells being a barbell that goes across, all the way across your body, you wouldn't be able to put the barbell between your legs because it would hit your shins, right? So place the dumbbells where the barbell would be, and that means you're going to have to do more of a hip hinge than a squat. Meaning your butt's going to have to kind of slide back. You still squat down,

but you're not doing like just the squat where you're super upright, because otherwise the bar, imagine if there was a barbell, right, you wouldn't be able to do that because it would hit your shins. It would be in front, in other words, it would be in front of you, a little bit not right in between your legs. And you keeping those weights in front of you

is gonna force you to counterbalance by sliding the hips back further. So this could be like I said, if I can get a video of you doing this and the guys can look at it, we can make some possible subtle adjustments of, okay, this is what I want you to do, move the bar, move the dumbbells out a little bit more, slide the hips back more until you feel the hamstrings, then grab the dumbbells, then we might feel more there. So that's also a possible.

Now one of the things that you said was, you know, I don't know what I should be feeling. With certain exercises, you want to feel the target muscle. With other exercises, what you want is really tight, good form, and you want to maximize the leverage and the technique and the force, and you're not necessarily trying to feel anything. A deadlift is like that. When I'm doing a deadlift, I'm not trying to feel my lats or my glutes or anything. I'm trying to have perfect form, use a lot of force and lift heavy weight with really good technique.

I'm not trying to feel any specific kind of muscle because that's not gonna make the deadlift as effective. It's really about the movement more than it is about the muscle. Now, if you wanna feel the hamstrings, do you, I feel the hamstrings, do you have a physio ball at home? Do you have one of those big Swiss balls or yoga balls? Yeah. Yeah. And so I've been using that in the foundational day too.

They have the physical leg curls. Yeah, there you go. I bet you feel the hamstrings on that. Yes, I feel it there. I feel if I average it to a stiff flat or a single leg deadlift, like I can feel it in those events, but this wasn't feeling. So thank you. The next part of my question though,

was just in general, my hamstrings don't seem to be like picking up the piece with the rest of my body. So I didn't know if I should add in more hamstring work or switch other things out. And in addition, sorry, go ahead. I would follow the program as laid out and then I would actually do maps aesthetic. So and in maps aesthetic, that's we have air,

we teach you how to focus on a lagging body part. So if you were to run a aesthetic, you would choose hamstrings as your focus and then that teaches you how to program specific stuff that's in addition to your foundational days for your hamstring. So I would run it as it's laid out. I would practice the sumo,

the sumo deadlift is such a great movement to practice and get good at it. And that might be what's going on right now. It's just a learning curve to get better at it. Not to mention we're also challenged because we're using dumbbells. So the fact that you give it some time for you to get better at the technique of this,

I wouldn't abandon it just because you want the, because hamstrings are gonna get worked in this. You have, this is a MAP center ball if you're following, right? Yes. Are you doing your trigger sessions? I am and I'm trying to focus the mainly on my lower body. I'll do a couple upper body

and then I do mainly other like lower body squats, lunges, coat touch. When you do the leg curls on the physio ball on your foundational day, how many reps do you normally do? I want to say I did like 10 because I think it was 8 to 12 and I think that was somewhere before the ball just gets away from me. Yeah, so 10 is pretty intense for you. Yeah, I can feel it.

All right, here's what I want you to do. On your trigger sessions days, I want you to use the physio ball and do five reps, leg curls. Okay. Each time you do a trigger session, just do five reps. You'll practice that throughout the day and then your hamstrings, you'll see your hamstrings respond for sure. Okay, awesome. Can I just ask one more part to this? Yeah no problem. So my they're also like my hamstrings get tight and achy. It's always kind of an issue of mine like I've always had really tight hamstrings. I was a desert and just I always was behind in my flexibility in that area and I'm just finding it even when I'm like priming for a workout I can feel them like pulling. They're just tight.

Is there anything that I can do to help that? Yeah. Do you eat a lot of processed foods? Yeah, probably too much. You do, really? Okay, so I was gonna say, I probably want to, but I mean, we've got kids in the house

and there's always stuff flying around us. You would be surprised how many people this is an issue with hydration and not having enough sodium. the reason why I ask you that is Do you track your water intake? No, not really you should but I don't you know what try drinking a half a gallon of water a day to a gallon actually tracking See if it changes anything for you with your hamstrings you would you'd be surprised Okay You'd be surprised. Okay. Yeah, and you had mentioned aesthetic. Do they have a dumbbell program as well?

It does. It does. And I'm going to have Doug put you in the form too, so we can take a look at that form. So then when you get a chance, give us a video of like the side and the front profile of you lifting, like a little video clip, and then we can help critique from there.

By the way, the reason why I said, drink more water, the reason why I said, drink more water with your hamstrings is you made the comment that you were a dancer, it's always been an issue. So I'm assuming that you've probably tried a million or one different stretches and ways to try to get them to not be tried.

Okay, that's why I went with hydrating. Otherwise, I would say stretch them or do more mobility, but with your background, and you even said you have kids, and here's my experience with people who have kids, especially if you watch your kids a lot, you don't drink enough water. I've never met a mom who drinks enough water,

who watches her kids or dad, who takes care of it. You just don't. So literally get something that you can measure the amount of water and say, and then figure out how many of them you'd need to have to equal a half a gallon to a gallon, and then make that a target. And if in three days you don't notice a difference in your hamstrings, then let us know in the forum.

But I'm gonna bet money that it's that. Okay. Okay, awesome. All right.. Okay. Okay, awesome. All right. Thank you. Thanks, man. Thanks. Yeah, I wanted to make sure I specified because before people listening,

wouldn't you need to stretch? Yeah, who need to stretch? Or could I drink a water? I don't know, that'd help me. But, you know, because of her background, I assume that she's tried lots of stretches. Yeah. And, man, you would be surprised.

I've had, especially, I don't know if she's- Are you serious? She's a huge factor for a lot of, especially, I don't know if she's... She's great. She's a huge factor for a lot of people. And I don't know if she stay at home or what, but I know when people are really busy and they have kids, I had clients, they'll actually, like, you don't even tell them to add water. Just write down how many glass of water,

and then they come back to me like, I didn't realize I had like one glass of water all day long. The other thing that I would speculate is just the over attention to them. She could be just over working on them. Yeah, just overworking them. Just they're just not, you're not letting them recover because you're constantly hammering them because you think they're underdeveloped or they're not strong or whatever. Well, she says they've been tight, even when she was a dancer.

Yeah. Right. So I mean, you know, it's interesting is you went the right route first. If it's not that, then I would then that before I think, overdoing it. Yes. Yeah. But in my, let me ask you guys this in your experience, if you guys, I've seen this too, whenever somebody has tightness or muscle cramping due to not having enough water, it almost always is calves, hamstrings, or in feet. It's always in the lower extremities that I've noticed. Do you guys see?

It's quad for me. Yeah, very strength. All right. Our next caller is Caitlin from Indiana. Caitlin, how's it going? How can we help you? Hi, guys. Um, Bryce, I just wanted to say thank you. Like everybody else does. And yeah, I'm just super happy to be on here and I'm excited to get to talk to you guys today. But, um, I'm Caitlin, as you guys know, and I'm a freshman and college.

And my minor is kinesiology. So I'm in a class called guys know, and I'm a freshman in college, and my minor is kinesiology, so I'm in a class called Intro to Kinesiology. And as the semester has come to an end, we're beginning to talk about nutrition to finalize everything up. And my professor has been talking a lot about how meat can cause cancer and how a split-based diet is just overall a lot better for you. And she showed studies of different things that basically just showed that it improved blood markers, whenever you go plant-based and everything like that. So I've been really confused and we even watched a documentary called The Game Changers and

it kind of worshiped veganism and being vegetarian. So I just got confused because it just seemed contrary to what you guys say a lot and I also was vegetarian for probably two years and I noticed a lot of hair loss and my toes and my fingers would go numb and tingly. So I was just wondering if I should go vegetarian again based off of what she said or if I should not. And I mean, if I went vegetarian, I'd supplement because obviously I had some deficiencies, but I don't know. I just wanted to see what you guys had to say about what she was saying and communicating.

K, your professor's an idiot. Oh, I thought I was just gonna ask her if she wanted us to be peace here. No, it's too late. Too late. You could share this clip. Vegan propaganda film is what that was. Literally, you're, you're,

I mean, this is just 100% Katelyn. Your professor is an idiot. When it comes to nutrition is a, is a, uh, this is the fact that she would show the fact that she would even show that documentary of all documentaries to show in a class. Let me, let me, let me, let me guess, she's a vegan. No, she actually isn't. And I mean, I've talked to other people and they've talked to her about it. And she still eats meat, but she just, I guess she doesn't need it as her. I don't really know. I got she still eats meat, but she just, I guess she doesn't need it as much,

or I don't really know why I don't care. If you get time, Caitlin, look up Lane Norton review on the game changers. He did a complete science breakdown on every point that entire doc in like, wrote it all out in a nice like ebook, print that shit off and give that to her. Look, drop it on her desk on your way out of class next week.

Here's a deal. The data is clear on this. If you compare a well-organized vegan diet to the standard typical American diet, it will outperform the standard American diet. If you compare any diet that's well planned to the standard American diet, it will outperform. The problem is, is they're not comparing apples to apples, okay? A healthy omnivore diet is superior to a healthy vegan diet. And I'm speaking generally because there are always exceptions. There are some people out there who for whatever whatever reason, have immune responses to meat,

just like there's some people out there that have immune responses to plants, and those are very, very rare exceptions in which, where they need to actually eat kind of these extreme diets. But our body, we evolved, teed a wide variety of foods, and, and again, this is not ideal,

so I'm not gonna tell you that this is ideal, but this does give us a clue in terms of how important meat is. If you had to pick one food to eat forever, if you were on an island and you can only take one food and you had to live there for two years and not die, there's only one food that would sustain you and you would not create a nutrition deficiency, and that would be fresh meat. There isn't a single plant that could do that. That's a really hard thing to refute. Yeah, meat is extremely nutrient dense.

The reason why you lost hair and you had tingling in your fingertips and probably hormone imbalances was because there are certain nutrients that are either not found in plants or terribly absorbed in plants. For example, the vitamin D that you may get in some plants, very, very difficult to absorb and use in comparison to the vitamin D that you may find in animal. Same thing with B vitamins, same thing with iron. So I am not saying that you should just eat meat, but I am saying that an omnivore

well-planned omnivore diet, you're going to do very well. By the way, studies also show that vegans have a higher rate of mental illness and have higher rates of nutrient deficiencies. Nutrient deficiencies among vegans is high, because of precisely what I'm saying. Now, you can eat a very well-planned vegan diet and supplement and probably be okay, but it's gonna require a lot more planning and the odds that you can do it without supplementing are far lower than if you ate an omnivore diet.

So what's the ideal diet? Well, this can vary from person to person, but it probably includes both plants and animals, okay, probably. That's like that for most people. So this really makes me upset that a professor would say something like this and makes someone like,

and what makes me even more upset because you're a college student, so you're supposed to listen to your professors, and here you are hearing your professor say something to you that made your health go bad, and now you're questioning, should I go back to doing that? I'm gonna give you a piece of advice that I think, this is as a father, that I think will benefit you for the rest of your life,

especially as a female, especially going through the medical system, because you're gonna be times where you're gonna have to go to the doctor and do stuff, listen to your body before you listen to anybody else, because you are gonna encounter doctors as well, who are gonna tell you that you're losing your mind, no, you're not, let's just take

this antidepressant, oh, it's not your hormones, bullshit, if your body is telling you something's wrong, then something is wrong, and I don't care who is on the other end telling you that that's not true. So if this professor is like, no, vegan's great. And you're like, my hair's falling out. Don't listen to the professor. Obviously, something was off with your diet. Yeah, I just, I just Google just to make sure it's this easy to find.

Put in Lane Norton. Actually, it was a send it to her. Lane Norton, game changers. And the first thing that pops up is his full review and breakdown. Lane Norton. Nice. It was a sendator. Lane Norton, game changers. And the first thing that pops up is his full review and breakdown. And like, it refutes every point they make with scientific studies to below that stupid documentary on the water. Here's, and here's the big, the, here's the big, big problem or challenge with the vegan

movement. Unlike other diets, the vegan diet, there's a core group of people who believe it to be moral. So this is different than any of the diet, right? Eukito, paleo, Mediterranean, carnivore, bodybuilding. I don't care. Every diet, the main core principle behind it is it'll make you stronger, faster, I don't care, every diet, the main core principle behind it is, it'll make you stronger, faster, healthier, leaner, whatever. The vegan diet has a core group of people behind it

who believe in the morality of the diet. So let's just imagine people were eating kids and kids made you healthier. We would still be like, no, we need to come out with every piece of information to tell people not to eat kids, even if it made you healthier because those poor still be like, no, we need to come out with every piece of information to tell people not to eat kids, even if it made you healthier, because those poor kids, we can't be eating kids.

This is how these core group of vegans believe about their diet. So to them to hell with the science, they're gonna take all the data they can and twist it and promote it in a way to just get people to stop eating animals. And yes, so what? Some people will be less healthy,

but we need to save all the animals. So the propaganda behind the vegan movement is the worst that I've ever seen in my entire life, precisely because of that. And if you look at the people that put together game changers, that's what you have. You have some very militant vegans who are like, they will, for any cost, prevent people from eating animals.

So in lane is a PhD,'s a doctor in this field. He's not a kinesiologist, he's an actual nutritionist. He'll go through and breaks it all down so you can see for yourself. But no, don't listen to them. Eat both. And if you want more advice, I would say aim for about a gram of protein per pound of body weight,

for performance, muscle, strength, insulin sensitivity, and health. Those that be the other piece of advice that I'll give you. Okay, great. Thank you so much. I really appreciate that. And I have been doing that all of this time aiming for a grand per pound and everything.

So thank you for that. I feel like I've gotten a lot of strength gains. So that's why I was confused about why she was saying that. And I had my boyfriend checked the class before the semester before. And he was really angry that she was saying all these things. And it made me angry whenever she said those things to him and like his class. But then whenever I was in it, it just seemed so convincing. So I got really, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Listen to your body, Caitlin, don't, and anybody ever tell you that your body is lying to you. If your hair's falling out and you feel like shit, I don't care what they, what they say on the other hand, there's something wrong, right? So listen to your body. Yeah, I'm gonna, I'm gonna have Doug put you in our private forum too.

So just in case this teacher says any other dumb shit you can run it by us. Oh my gosh, yay! She probably will. Oh, that was awesome if they saw this. And they wanted to bait or something. Oh, that'd be awesome. I doubt it.

Thank you. You got it, thank you. I really figured that trigger something in me. Yeah, you know what it was? Yeah, it's a professor. Well, and the fact that you, she had clear signs that her body was not doing well. What makes me mad is this.

There's many diets and you can eat them in healthy ways. There are ways to eat vegan diets and ways that are healthy. It just takes more planning. We've said that many times. I'm not anti-vegan. Here's what really pisses me off. We have a kid, she, she's young and her a Superior or someone that she's supposed to trust is giving her advice that potentially could harm her health that already did Yeah, so it's like screw you like what are you trying to do here by by

You know putting this crappy message out there And potentially hurting just like I would never say that vegan is bad for everybody because there may, there are some people out there that that does work best for them and it is healthiest for them. So yeah, that makes me super upset. I really, really hope that she takes that and prints it off and believes it on her desk. Like literally just,

Oh, that old lady. Even if she doesn't want to be a confrontational herself and just anonymously I read this print that don't even say anything just leave it on her desk highlight the title of it drop it on her desk when she's not looking and leave because a little mess is a bunch of people who knows how many other people you could say

that this teacher stops promoting some bullshit like that and I'm gonna say this again with all the documents you know what typically motivates bad information in the market is money, right? What makes you the most money? There's only one thing worse than that. That's false virtue. And when you believe, and I get this, look, I respect you.

If you think eating animals is immoral and we should never eat animals, like I respect it. And if you live that way, I respect you because you actually, your actions support your beliefs. I respect that, but I will not listen to you because you're so driven by this morality that you have that you're gonna say anything to get me to listen to you and to believe you.

Anything, and it's even worse than people motivated by money because you don't care if you lose money, you don't care, but you just don't care. You just want people to not even. It's a righteous pursuit. And it's a terrible. And it hurts a lot of people. So look, if you like Mind Pump, head over to MindPumpFree.com and check out all of our guides. We have guides that can help you with almost any health or fitness goal. You can also find all of us on social media. Justin is on Instagram at Mind Pump. Justin, you can find me on Instagram

on Mind Pump to Stefano. And you can find Adam on Instagram at my pump to Stefano and you can find Adam on Instagram at my pump Adam. Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB Superbundle at Mind Pump Media.com. The RGB Superbundle includes maps and a ballad,IC, MAPSTERFORMENT and MAPSISTEDIC, 9 months of phased, expert exercise programming designed by Sal Adam and Justin to systematically transform the way your body looks, feels and performs. With detailed workout blueprints in over 200 videos, the RGB Superbundle is like having Sal Adam and Justin as your own personal trainers, but at a

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